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The Bush presidency was my fault: I am so sorry my work stopped the Florida recount
Salon ^ | November 29, 2015 | John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University

Posted on 11/29/2015 7:09:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

An example of an extremely significant, decidedly unintended result of a relatively tiny event can be nightmarish. This one is, at least for me. It concerns the role I played in getting George W. Bush elected president in 2000. That I was the butterfly whose fluttering cascaded into Bush's election still pains me. I had written an op-ed for the New York Times titled "We're Measuring Bacteria with a Yardstick" in which I argued that the vote in Florida had been so close that the gross apparatus of the state's electoral system was incapable of discerning the difference between the candidates' vote totals. Given the problems with the hanging chads, the misleading ballots (in retrospect, aptly termed "butterfly ballots"), the missing and military ballots, a variety of other serious flaws and the six million votes cast, there really was no objective reality of the matter.

Later when the Florida Supreme Court weighed in, Chief Justice Charles T. Wells cited me in his dissent from the majority decision of the rest of his court to allow for a manual recount of the undervote in Florida. Summarizing the legal maneuverings, I simply note that in part because of Wells's dissent the ongoing recount was discontinued, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and George Bush was (s)elected president.

Specifically, Judge Wells wrote, "I agree with a quote by John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University, when he wrote that, 'the margin of error in this election is far greater than the margin of victory, no matter who wins.' Further judicial process will not change this self-evident fact and will only result in confusion and disorder." (Incidentally, the CNN senior political analyst at the time, Jeff Greenfield, cited the quote in his book on the 2000 presidential election, "Oh, Waiter! One Order of Crow!," and wrote, "The single wisest word about Florida was delivered not by a pundit but by mathematician John Allen Paulos." I doubt, however, that Greenfield thought it was reason to stop the recount.)

I was surprised and flattered, I admit, by the judge but also very distressed that my words were used to support a position with which I disagreed. Vituperative e-mails I received didn't help. Many were angry that I would support Bush. Some were clearly demented. With all due respect to these correspondents and the esteemed judge, I believed and still believe that the statistical tie in the Florida election supported a conclusion opposite to the one Wells drew. The tie seemed to lend greater weight to the fact that Al Gore received almost half a million more popular votes nationally than did Bush. If anything, the dead heat in Florida could be seen as giving Gore's national plurality the status of a moral tiebreaker. At the very least the decision of the rest of the court to allow for a manual recount should have been honored since Florida's vote was pivotal in the Electoral College. Even flipping a commemorative Gore-Bush coin in the capitol in Tallahassee would have been justified since the vote totals were essentially indistinguishable.

Historical counterfactuals are always dubious undertakings, but I doubt very much that the United States would have gone to war in Iraq had Gore been president. I also think strong environmental legislation would have been pursued and implemented under him. Was I responsible for Bush's presidency? No, of course not; butterflies can't be held responsible for the unpredictable tsunamis that in retrospect can be traced to their fluttering and to a myriad of other intermediate events. Still, every once in a while, the guiltifying thought that the unwarranted Iraq War was my fault does occur to me.


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; electoralcollege; flordiarecount; liberalagenda; republic
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LOOK at ME!

LOOK at ME!

Boo-HOO we should have tossed a coin (get rid of that pesky Electoral College)!

All that environmental destruction without Algore and war - LOOK at ME!

1 posted on 11/29/2015 7:09:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I’ll bet the Obama presidency was your fault, too.


2 posted on 11/29/2015 7:12:27 AM PST by skeeter
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

3 posted on 11/29/2015 7:13:29 AM PST by OwenKellogg (CRUZ to Victory! Donate at tedcruz.org. The Trump Tsunami does not need your money.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I seem to remember back page admissions long after Florida’s election after PAINSTAKING review of each and every ballot in the state by at least two or three liberal newspapers that George W. Bush won that election.

This man’s me, me, me, I, I, I attempt to rewrite history amidst today’s political scene is pitiful, frankly.


4 posted on 11/29/2015 7:13:41 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Did The Good Professor manage to count the dogs, cadavers and crooks who voted multimple times for Algor?


5 posted on 11/29/2015 7:14:19 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat (In Missouri, and coming to a State near you, #BlackLiesMatterz)
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To: skeeter

He needs to apologize for Bush since Obama is such a success.


6 posted on 11/29/2015 7:14:19 AM PST by bray (Trump/Cruz 2016)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

If it makes him feel any better, he won’t have to worry about a recount in 2016, with Trump taking at least 350 Electoral Votes.


7 posted on 11/29/2015 7:14:58 AM PST by BobL (Who cares? He's going to build a wall and stop this invasion.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Only a real ***hole would be out there complaining about the Bush presidency. The country is on the brink of destruction and this moron is worried about Bush. IMHO.


8 posted on 11/29/2015 7:15:23 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Who is fact checking the state controlled, leftwing media's fact checkers?)
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To: bray

He probably thinks so. The left was completely spun out of orbit and has left the galaxy.


9 posted on 11/29/2015 7:15:54 AM PST by skeeter
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To: skeeter

No recount by any one inclusive of NYT showed gore winning. Poor math teacher should do some history, instead of trying to rewrite it,


10 posted on 11/29/2015 7:16:33 AM PST by Bidimus1
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Yet most people don’t know that Ted Cruz was on the Bush legal team fighting to stop the dems from stealing the election.


11 posted on 11/29/2015 7:17:20 AM PST by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Gore lost his own state...

Gore legal team thought they could steal the election...


12 posted on 11/29/2015 7:19:19 AM PST by Popman (Christ alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Yeah it's your fault a...h.... All your fault! Somehow all the illegal votes didn't put Algore in the WH because of you!
13 posted on 11/29/2015 7:20:01 AM PST by Ditter (God Bless Texas!)
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To: Gaffer

The Sunshine Laws required the truth come out, and it did: George Bush won the state of Florida in 2000. All the malcontents who had threatened that “the truth will come out” quickly disappeared when it did. Al Gore had nobody but himself to blame; if he had carried his home state (or that of BJ Clinton, for that matter), Florida would have been irrelevant.


14 posted on 11/29/2015 7:20:42 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Bidimus1

Yet some have continued to repeat the lie to change history; AL Gore lost Florida (and the election) in 2000, and supposedly blamed BJ Clinton for that. He was probably right, but he wasn’t a very good candidate himself.


15 posted on 11/29/2015 7:21:55 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: cripplecreek

Yes, and the real purpose for bringing this up is to again rally the Democratic Party underground to start beating the drums with calls to get rid of the Electoral College - so that the Democrat city strongholds can (s)elect presidents.


16 posted on 11/29/2015 7:24:30 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

These people really need to move on.


17 posted on 11/29/2015 7:24:44 AM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: A_Former_Democrat

What is consistently overlooked in this argument is that the major networks announced a victory for Gore an hour before the polls closed in the heavily conservative panhandle. How many Republicans, thinking the cause was lost, never bothered going to the polls after work?


18 posted on 11/29/2015 7:24:47 AM PST by Hootowl
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Tired songs in the key of “Me” by a leftist hack. I’ll bet his math classes are a hoot — probably invented Common Core, too.

P.S.: Why do they always look like they need a haircut, a bath, and their clothes cleaned & pressed.


19 posted on 11/29/2015 7:26:37 AM PST by twister881
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Banana Republics,when they bother holding elections at all,have countless recounts lasting for months.


20 posted on 11/29/2015 7:28:23 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Obamanomics:Trickle Up Poverty)
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